"Her son Paul I. succeeded her in 1796. His mother had neglected him in early years, and hated him when he became a man, keeping spies near him, compelling him to live away from the court, and depriving him of all power and influence. She had caused the murder of his father, and the hatred was reciprocal. After his accession, he gave funeral honors to his father, disinterred his mother's last favorite, Potemkin, and threw his remains into a ditch. His temper had been soured by his mother's treatment, and he took a malicious pleasure in undoing what she had done. The revolution in France was in progress when he came to the throne, and Paul joined the coalition against her, sending his armies into Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, to fight against the French republic. Suvarof, in these campaigns, proved himself to be one of the greatest generals of his age, and is still held in the highest veneration by the Russians. But the emperor, dissatisfied with his allies, withdrew his armies from the coalition, and, with Denmark and Sweden, joined in the armed neutrality, of which I have spoken to you before. "Paul was capricious, despotic, and subject to fits of partial insanity, which aggravated his ill temper, and caused him to commit the most atrocious deeds. By his second wife he had ten children, the oldest of whom was Alexander, the Czarovitz; the second, Constantine; and the youngest but one, Nicholas. Paul's humors were unendurable, and Alexander consented to his dethronement, to avoid greater evils to the empire. He signed a proclamation, announcing his assumption of the crown. The conspirators found the emperor in his palace. Breaking into his chamber, they required him to sign his abdication, and his refusal brought on a struggle, in which, after a desperate resistance, he was strangled with a sash. Alexander had not consented to the assassination of his father, and the event filled him with passionate grief. This was in 1801, and the new emperor was twenty-five years old, and a man of decided ability. He was in favor of peace; but it was impossible for him not to take part in the general war against Napoleon, though he first entered into an alliance with him.